Demon in the Closet
by Surarrin
Summary: Throughout Naruto's childhood he had no one to talk to but his caretakers, he was completely naive about the world outside of what his caretaker's told him, and they always ignored the worse part's of the world, which left Naruto vulnerable to everything.


**This is my pet project which should have been done ages ago, but I used the daily train rides to sleep instead of write, so yeah. This was saved because it was on my laptop, so here it is, This will be a two-shot, unless I feel the need to continue it. **

**Jon **

* * *

The forests of Konoha at night were frightening. Anyone, from anywhere in the world would tell you that. Be they a humble merchant, chasing foxes through the bushes to make clothing for their shops, civilian parents searching for their children, or shinobi, doing the daily patrol around the boarder of the village. 

There were few that would be out in the forests, when they could instead be snuggled up in their warm beds, drifting off to sleep after a hard days work, and yet there was, a small child, sitting in the middle of clearing, sniffing softly as he tried to wipe the tears which were gathering in his eyes away. The sun had begun to set an hour before he had entered the forest, and it had since become pitch black in the forest, he had ventured further into the forest then he had ever before, and was lost.

The tears in his eyes, and grief in his heart came from two sources, the fact that he was lost, it was cold, and that he was hungry, and that he had been bombarded with objects and been yelled at by the adults in the village. It had been the first day he had been allowed out of his house, ever. He had been expecting the villagers to be nice, from what he had begun to read in his books, they were by far the nicest in the world. Nevertheless, as he had just found out, they were far from it; they were, in his eyes easily comparable to the demons of lore he had heard tales about when his single caretaker reprimanded him about his behaviour, threatening to send him to the demons and have them eat him up.

The wind slowly passed through the clearing, carrying with it a gust of leaves. A small leaf landed upon the boys nose, and he smiled before frowning again as the leaf was swept away in the second blast of wind. Though he tried to follow the leaf with his eyes, it was impossible amongst the darkness.

"Stupid leaf," mumbled the boy as he glared down at the ground in front of him.

A moment later, a giggle escaped him as he realized that what he said applied to two aspects of his current situation. The people of Konoha were abusing him, and the leaf had left him. His giggle soon broke out into pointless laughter. Although hi laughter was loud, the boy's untrained ears were still able to pick up the rusting of the leaves upon the branches, of the tree's surrounding the edges of the clearing.

The boy did not need to strain his ears as his laughter died down, he could hear almost silent, illegible traces of whispers, coming from all directions. In the darkness, all alone, the boy began to feel fear begin to creep further and further into his heart, until he could no longer resist the urge to hold his tongue, and hope whatever it was, or whoever it was would not notice him.

"W-who's there?" he asked, his voice trembling.

The whispers stop suddenly, and the boy could hear the branches rustle, and creak again. On all sides, the boy heard the soft thudding of feet landing against the soft and moist ground. He dared not breathe, he held his breath, and moved not a single muscle as he waited for whatever it was to do something, anything.

"Aren't you a little young to be out here at this time of the night, little boy?" asked a snide voice from behind the boy, causing him to spin around and scramble backwards. As he stared fearfully up into the darkness a spark of light suddenly, for a single moment, illuminated his vision, showing him the visage of a tall man, cloaked in black. The only visible feature that he could see with the brief lighting was the plate of metal adorning his forehead, with a symbol, that he recognized as the emblem of the Hidden village of Stone.

For a moment, the spark also illuminated the boy's visage, presenting the taller, older man with the realization that the child before him had blonde hair, and blue eyes.

"I'm five," said the blonde haired boy rudely as he stood up and squinted his eyes, trying to make out the figure in front of him again.

"That's still quite young, to be out alone, at night, who knows when someone could come along and snatch you away," whispered a sultry voice into blue eyed boy's right ear, causing him to flinch away from the source.

"You aren't real," mumbled the child lowly as he pointed ignored the two presences that made themselves known to him. "You two aren't real," he said a little more firmly as he slowly brought his small frame up from the ground.

"Really, we aren't real?" asked a young, mocking voice from the young blonde-haired persons left.

"**Yami Tsusihou no Jutsu**," intoned a voice from behind the boy, and in a single instant, the darkness was chased away, giving light to the four figures surrounding him. The first one, he thought he had heard, was in front of him. He was, as the boy had thought previously, draped completely in black, except for his face and forehead. The man was not very unique; brown hair, brown eyes, and a rugged face that seemed to be worn down. To someone with any life experience, they would realize that the man had lived through many a battle. The blonde haired boy on the other hand just assumed he needed to eat more.

Next, the boy turned his head to his right, and was greeted with the sight of a woman. His eyes were first drawn to her lips, which stood a stark comparison to the rest of her face, they were a bloody red, while her skin was a soft pink, and her eyes were a lighter shade of brown than the mans, her hair was pitch black.

The boy's eyes lingered upon the black-haired woman's for a split second, before his head turned to his left and he surveyed the second last person in the clearing that he was aware of; The man's skin was sickly pale, and his eyes were no better, they were a vile green, the green seemed to spread past his iris and was contaminating the whites of his eyes. The man's hair was grey, it had no shine to it at all; it seemed dead. The mans face wore a vicious grin, showing hints of yellowed teeth beyond the thin lightly pink hued sacks of flesh which were his lips.

Trembling, the boy lowly turned his head around, and with it his body, until he faced the final person in the clearing, the one who had muttered Darkness Breaker technique and chased away the darkness.

The mans hands were held together, with two finger's pointing upwards, his body seemed to radiate a strange glow, one, that the boy had seen before on few people during the day. Those people seemed to purposely ignore him, but this man did not. The blonde stared curiously up, past the mans hands, towards his face. The man was almost an exact replica of the first man who had shown up in the clearing and spoken.

"Who are you guys?" the boy asked uncouthly, as he stared up into the slightly bloodshot eyes of the man who was holding his hands in a funny way.

"That holds no importance to you child, but a better question would be, who are you?" as he finished speaking a murmur of conformity came from each of the other's in the clearing.

"Uzumaki Naruto," the boy said, smiling brightly.

A frown appeared on the mans face as he peered down untrustingly down into the now identified Naruto's face. Distrust clearly showed upon the mans face. Distrust that Naruto was oblivious to, the child continued to smile up into the mans face, despite the hostility emanating from the man, and those around him.

"Uzumaki, is that your mother's name?" the woman asked this time, her voice lacked the sultry tone it had been submerged in prior.

Naruto shrugged lightly as he looked to the woman for a split second.

"I don't know my parents, they're dead," he said softly, turning his eyes down from the black haired woman's gaze.

"What should we do with him?" asked the pale man as he stared down in disgust at the boy in the middle of their four-person circle.

The first person who had revealed himself shrugged.

"Our orders were to kill anything which could warn Konoha of the main force of the attack. He may look harmless, but if he tells any one then we'll have failed and the casualty numbers on our side will be a lot higher, and their's a lot lower. He has to die," the man dressed in black said nonchalantly.

"But he's so cute!" said the woman of the group, as she pouted.

She looked down into Naruto's eyes, which were peering up into hers. A small hint of red coloured his cheeks, the hints of fear in his eyes, which appeared the moment the man so casualty mentioned his death, were fading away in the presence of slight embarrassment. The woman bestowed an insincere smile upon Naruto, not that Naruto noticed, and then kneeled down in front of him. Her hand quickly found its way to his cheek and cupped it.

"Can I keep him?" she asked, as she slowly dragged her fingertips down over Naruto's cheek. She pointedly ignored the severe blush, which was starting to spread forth from Naruto's cheeks and encompass his entire face. Her gaze instead, found its way to the man to her left; the man was still holding his hands together.

"He'd just end up dying later when the old men see him, no matter what you say to make them ignore the fact he is a miniature Kiiro Furasshou. "The man said bemusedly.

"So? Can I keep him until we get back, please?" she asked again.

The man's resolve was weakening.

"I suppose, but if a higher up says he has to die, then he has to die, and until that happens he's your responsibility," the leader of the group said aggravated.

"Hear that little boy? You're mine now!" she said happily, before slinging an arm around Naruto's shoulder.

"Great, you gave a child to a child molester, you shouldn't be encouraging her," the first man, who had shown up in the clearing, snapped.

"What's a molester?" Naruto asked confusedly as he squirmed from the contact with the female of the group.

"To molest is to Abuse somebody sexually: to force unwanted sexual attentions on somebody, especially a child or physically weaker adult," the pale man said mechanically, as if he was reading out of a book.

"I'm not gonna molest him," the woman snapped angrily, before turning her attention back to Naruto.

"You want it don't you?" she cooed softly.

While Molest was a foreign word to Naruto, Abuse and words containing sex were not. His caretaker had taken a large amount of care to ensure that he was aware of what certain words meant, words which would most likely pop up throughout his life.

With that in mind, Naruto began to squirm even more against the woman.

"No, I don't like you!" Naruto said childishly, before stamping his foot down against hers, causing her to release her hold upon him.

"Dammit, you little brat, I don't care what you like," the woman said angrily, before backhanding Naruto across the face.

The small amount of violence towards Naruto had caused him to seize up and stop moving. While he had been ht before in a reprimanding manner, he had never been outright struck with nothing but anger behind the strike.

"That's better," the woman said cheerfully, before she reached up and gently caressed the place upon his cheek where the brunt of her strike had hit.

"She's such a bitch," complained the man draped in black. "I mean, who'd do that shit to a child, it's just wrong, cut off the light, and I don't want to witness her disgusting behaviour," he half ordered the man who was maintaining the light.

"That would be preferable, I'm not much of an exhibitionist," said the woman tauntingly as her arms ensnared around Naruto's small body. In an instant the area was plunged into darkness again as the leader of the group broke apart his hands in front of him.

"No," whispered Naruto softly as he brought his little arms up and grasped a hold of the woman's shoulder, holding her away from him. "I won't let you, you hag-face," he finished rudely, before lifting his right foot up, and kicking her in the stomach.

A harsh laugh erupted from the woman's mouth as her eyes encountered Naruto's

"You stupid little boy, like a small kick like that could hurt me, now if you want to hurt someone you have to do something like this," she snarled angrily, before gripping Naruto's right wrist, and pulling it hard. Her other hand found it's way to Naruto's neck, where she held him in place while still pulling at his arm.

"Stop it!" Naruto pleaded, "It hurts!" he said in a high pitched voice as his eyes began to tear up.

"Scream for me!" the black haired woman demanded, before with one final jerk of Naruto's arm, it was pulled free of the socket. At that moment she ravaged Naruto's lips with her own, swallowing down the scream of absolute pain which tore from Naruto's mouth as his nerves were set afire with pain.

"I can't stand to be here as this abominable act takes place," he said disgustedly, before, from what the others could hear, leaving.

"I shall take my leave also, our mission is to remove any potential threats from the area, not get off on little children," the leader's voice rang out from where he had been standing, before a rustle of fabric signified that he had left.

"And how about you?" asked the woman huskily as she detached her mouth from Naruto's whimpering one.

"I find it rather erotic actually, I might stay and watch if you do-" he said repulsively, before the black haired woman interrupted.

"Get the fuck out of here!" she snapped at him, before turning her attention back to Naruto.

The man shrugged in the darkness, before disappearing, as the two men before him had.

"Now where were we, Naruto-kun?" asked the woman seductively.

Naruto's body was wracked with shudders and his head was turned down, his eyes were glaring down at the ground, more then a few tears had gathered upon his eyes and they were dripping down onto the ground, untouched by anything.

"I hate you," sobbed Naruto angrily as he thrashed around in the woman's grip.

A sickening crunch tore through the relative silence of the forest causing Naruto to cry out once again in pain. The black haired woman frowned as Naruto's body became still, unmoving. She gripped the blonde haired boy's chin harshly and forced his head upwards.

She froze the moment she was able to look upon Naruto's face.

Out of Naruto's eye sockets two red slitted pupils were staring out at her. Words could not describe the fascination and horror, which began to cloud the woman's mind as she started into the boy's eyes. She should not have been able to see them so vividly, his eyes should not have been glowing, and he should not have been able to form chakra, which to her immense surprise had begun to radiate from the boy's body, illuminating it, and slowly the entire clearing.

"I hate you," Naruto repeated in a guttural whisper, his tears having long since evaporated under the heat that the chakra had produced.

The black haired woman came to her senses as soon as she felt the heated flesh of Naruto's hands enclose upon her wrists, which a strength he should not have been possible of. She began to struggle, trying to dislodge Naruto's finger's from her wrists, but the harder she tried the stronger the grip became, until, without warning, both of her wrists shattered.

A cry of pain escaped from her lips as she stopped attempting to get away from the little boy. Despite having already broken both her wrists, the boy did not stop squeezing. The woman's agonising screams continued until her skin began to break under the pressure he was exhibiting upon her arms. The black haired woman grinded her teeth together as she tried to regain her bearings.

And she did, just in time to witness the endless abyss that Naruto's eyes had become. Where there had once been eyes she could only see crimson, an all consuming energy seemed to radiate from every pore of Naruto's skin, and just as it began, the woman's life was ended as Naruto tugged upon both of the woman's arms and arched his leg upwards, connecting his foot with the woman's chin.

Under the force of the impact the woman's cranium had no chance, the structure was brutally torn upwards and off her shoulder' in a massive display of gore.

Naruto remained motionless as he stared at the junction between the woman's shoulders, where her head had previously been. He ignored the dull thud of her detached head hitting the ground and focused upon the blood spurting out of her neck. He found himself fascinated by it, the way the blood gushed out in a torrent upwards without any signs of slowing down.

Naruto's grip on the mutilated woman's wrists had not lessened in strength, it had only tightened, and it had got to the point where his hands had pulverised the flesh, bone and muscle thoroughly, to the point where her forearms simply fell away, allowing the woman's body to drop to the ground.

The blonde haired boy turned his gaze downwards to his bloodstained hands, through the abysmal translucent energy that was pouring off his skin, he could make out the blood, it was dried by the looks of it, Naruto clasped his hands together and tried to rub off the blood, but it didn't change in the slightest, the bloodstains remained, no matter how hard he scrubbed his hands.

Minutes passed by and his actions amounted to null. He could barely see his hands anymore, the energy had begun to compress and become opaque, he could no longer see his hands, and he could only see the chakra, which covered him. A small smile appeared on the boy's face as he moved his hands away from each other and watched as the energy left an after trail. His smile became giddy as he slowly dragged his hands around in front of himself, staring in wonder at the red lines his finger's and arms made as they passed through the air.

After watching, the beautiful trails of light his movements left behind, Naruto took a moment to stare down at the dead woman's decapitated and de-handed body, before glancing over to her head. In a split second, he made a decision, and began to walk over to the black haired woman's head. He stopped in front of it for a moment before reaching down and picking it up off the ground with both of his hands and holding it in front of his head.

"Would you like to me my friend now Head-chan?" Naruto asked innocently as he stared into the semi closed eyes of the bodiless head.

Naruto remained, staring at the head for a few moments before nodding to himself.

"You can be my best friend now," he said happily before glancing around the clearing, and pointedly ignoring the blood soaked region that the head's former body was situated in.

"I'm thirsty," Naruto said to himself softly as he transferred the head from his hands to under his right shoulder, "Let's try and find a pond or something, the people who look after me said that there are lot's ponds and stuff in the forests, and this is a forest so there should be lot's of them," he continued to say, as he began to walk out of the clearing.

Unknown to Naruto, high above the clearing a single set of eyes were watching him, never looking away, focused solely upon him as he continued to speak to the disembodied head, and walk out of sight. As the child's voice began to grow faint the pair of eyes closed, and disappeared amongst the darkness, the only sign they had left was the slight rustle of the branches that had surrounded it.

Naruto seemed to walk aimlessly through the forest, the only indication he, as doing anything except walking, was the movement of his gaze, which was staring forwards into the darkness, searching for something. The young boy turned his gaze from the darkness in front of him, which was only just held off by the glow, which surrounded his body, to the black haired head tucked under his arm.

"Where do you think water would be?" the blonde haired youth asked with a small frown.

The head remained silent, the only change in its appearance was the slight shift in its hair as its carrier continued to walk over the uneven ground. However, Naruto seemed to take that as an answer, "To the right you say," Naruto seemed to echo as he switched his gaze from the cranium towards the forest

A frown over took his boyish features before he grinned to himself, and promptly dropped the head as he moved both of his arms outwards and held them up, he straighten both his index fingers and thumbs out until they together formed a right angle, he stared hard at them for a moment, before grinning and dropping his left hand.

"Alright, this is right," the grinning boy declared, before bending over and picking up his new friend.

A high-pitched whistling sound suddenly burst into life from Naruto's left, the only indication anything had happened before a splatter of crimson exploded from his hand. Naruto stared down at his hand unblinkingly for a few moments, before bringing it up, closer to his face for inspection. From the distance it had been at, and the thick glow that had surrounded it, Naruto could not have been sure of what had happened, but with the shortened distance, he could now make out his hand, along with the large knife sticking out of it.

Naruto frowned as he stared at the offending piece of metal, it was beginning to glow brighter then the rest of him, he could barely make anything out as he stared into the ferocious burning that had overtaken it, and then, as suddenly as it started, it disappeared, along with the weapon, leaving nothing to lend evidence to it's existence. With the shock having lost its potency, Naruto was left to feel the faint pain left in his hand by the disintegrated instrument.

"Ow," Naruto murmured slightly as he flexed his fingers in and out, trying to ignore the tingling sensation that overtook his fingers as he moved them.

Without warning, Naruto screamed. Along with the scream, blood torn out from his skin through the glow of the orange chakra. As much as Naruto tried to move he could not, he found that his arms, legs chest and neck were paralysed, he forced his gaze down to his chest to seek out the reason his body would not obey, and why it was causing him pain; The answer glared back at him in the form of a myriad of metallic objects. They, like the single knife before them, began to glow brightly under the pressure of the orange energy, and began to dematerialise.

It was not the end however; blade after blade began to pour down out of the shadows above. The difference this time however, was that none of them came close to touching Naruto. The infernal glow, which surrounded his body, branched out in tendrils, and every time a blade came close it would ensnare it within itself, and the blade would crumble, with only specks of dust to attest to their existence.

Naruto had had enough, he jumped towards the direction that the final blade had come from, and within a millisecond was upon the area, the glow which emanated from his body gave birth to visibility, and along with that visibility came the sight of one, of a dozen different men running away from him, dodging from tree to tree, in an attempt to disappear back into the darkness, something, which to their misfortune, that Naruto wasn't going to allow to happen.

Kicking off from the tree, which was in front of him, Naruto soared through the air towards the closest person. They never stood a chance. The moment Naruto was in reaching distance he thrust his hand towards their back. His fingertip's tore through the fabric covering their back and pierced into his chest, and exploded from the other side, holding what seemed to be one of the person's ribcage.

A horrific cry of pain tore from the man's throat as the wave of pain from the wound came to him, it was however, reduced to a gurgle as a set of teeth tore into the side of his neck, tearing out part of his vocal cords and oesophagus. Naruto tore his arm back out from the man's chest, along with a fragment of the man's ribcage. The smell of burnt flesh met Naruto's nose, prompting him to glance down at the hole in the man's chest. A sickening grin came to life upon Naruto's face as he stared into the cauterised flesh that the hole he can created had become. Naruto detached his mouth from the man's neck and spat out the chunk of flesh that he had torn off him, the grin upon his face seemed to widen at the sight of the wound on the man's neck searing closed from the presence of the glow, which superseded Naruto's body.

The acts had happened in an instance as Naruto, attached to the now dying, and deformed man sailed through the air, and in that instance, Naruto had picked out his next target. Naruto pushed down against the man's head and lightly pressed the soles of his feet against the man's back, causing him to spin lightly in the air. Once The Naruto's back was parallel to the Naruto's retreating target, the demonic boy kicked off hard, sending both himself forwards and the body backwards at a phenomenal speed.

Naruto paid no attention what so ever to the body behind him as it was impaled unto branch, jutting out from a large tree.

His attention was solely focused upon the green haired man in front of him, who was frantically trying to escape. The man never had a chance.

The moment Naruto passed by him he slammed his hand into the back of the man's head, at the junction with his neck, and savagely tore it off in a splatter of gore. Naruto struck his arm outwards and used it to defy his body's motion. He began to spin violently, before, with his finger's dug into the man's skull, he sighted two men to the far right, far out of his way. His fingers dug harder into the man's head, which he had just acquired, before; Naruto released it with a violent throw, aimed at the back of one of the enemy's head.

Naruto watched in morbid fascination as the projectile head collided with the back of the man's head, and a look of intense pain over took the man's facade for a single moment as his body was knocked off course and tilted to the left slightly. A sickening crunch echoed throughout the forest, before the man just slightly knocked against the person next to him. Normally it would have not mattered much, but in midair, at a high velocity, the slightest unanticipated change was deadly.

It proved true as the man, put slightly off balance made contact with a branch, which he had intended to use as the next leg of his journey. Instead of landing correctly, the man landed slightly off balance, and the sudden shift in weight and the off balance kick off had his leg snap, causing him to continue to fall down.

"**Doton: Zokutou no jutsu**," an angry voice shouted from far down below Naruto.

The only indication anything was happening was the slight shift in the ground at first, only visible by the faintest of the orange glow. In mere moments, the product of the shout was completely visible to Naruto in the form of a jagged spire that was erupting upwards a bit below his position, to where he would be in a few moments.

As he predicted, Naruto found himself in a direct collision course with the sharp spear of solid earth. The tip of the spire struck Naruto right in the middle of his stomach, but he was able to grasp the sides of the spire with his hands moments before it would have tore straight through him. He wasted not even a single second as he dug his feet into the earth column and shifted himself off its tip. He began to race down the structure as fast as he could towards the base.

He could see in the faint distance the person who had attacked him, and prepared to launch himself towards them, intent on tearing them apart, but his intent amounted to no avail, Naruto suddenly found himself being knocked off his course by a second spire, but he was able to once again avoid being impaled upon it, and managed to get on top of it yet again. Flashes from all around him gave him a moments warning, before from every direction spikes of earth tore through the air towards him. Large spikes, thin spikes, curved spikes, all different kinds he was able to dodge, but in the end they seemed to fulfil their purpose, as they stopped appearing he was able to look for the enemy he was about to attack, only to find that they had disappeared.

A low growl escaped Naruto's lips as he dropped from the deadly solid earth spike prism that surrounded him. The moment his feet touched the ground he straightened up and began to walk backwards from where he had come, his eyes scanning the ground around him, searching.

"Head-chan?" he called out loudly.

Naruto turned his head sharply and began walking in the direction that it faced. He continued walking, and every now and then, he would sharply turn and continue walking, every now and then calling out 'Head-chan'. After more then a few minutes, Naruto was back in a familiar spot, the spot where he had dropped his friend.

There, laid down upon it's side, the disembodied, blood dripping head remained still, until Naruto lent down and picked it up with both of his hands. Naruto held it up in front of him and smiled. The half-closed eyes had begun to glaze over lightly, and reflected the light, which was pulsating off Naruto's body.

A small frown appeared on Naruto's lips before he nodded to himself.

"Those men were silly, they kept running away and didn't want to play," Naruto said unhappily, before his brow furrowed.

"You said they want to play Hide and Seek?" the blonde haired boy said curiously, before his face seemed to light up with joy, "of course! That is why they tried to stop me, so they could have a chance to hide," Naruto said to himself as though it were obvious.

"I'm still thirsty though," Naruto, said lightly as he glanced around the area, "You were right!" he exclaimed as his eyes widened lightly, "There is water here," he said excitedly as he pointed into the distance, where a trickle of water was obvious against a stone plateau.

As calm as he could be, Naruto stuck his friend under his arm and began walking towards the raised area. Once he arrived there he climbed up, as well as he could one handed, which to his surprise, was quite well indeed, especially since his finger's seemed to find holes in the rock's face which fit his finger's perfectly.

There, in the middle of the stone's surface was a hollowed out basin filled with water. There was a steady flow of water into it from the right, where a series of plants dripped water into it. The source of water was far more then the cache could handle, the trickle of water that Naruto had been able to see sprang from the overflow of the basin.

Gently, Naruto placed the head, which was held under his right arm down upon the stone ledge and kneeled down, upon the edge of the water basin. Naruto's eyebrows shot up as he stared down into his reflection; A glowing figure stared back up at him with a pair of infernal eyes, if he had any formal education he may have recognised it as a monster, but he hadn't. Naruto cupped his hands together and dipped them into the water, before bringing them up to his lips.

A scowl appeared upon Naruto's face as the water he held between his hands evaporated. Naruto once again dipped his hands into the water, but the moment he brought them up the water burst into steam again. Without warning the energy-laden boy dove his head into the water and almost literally inhaled the water, luckily for him, he had managed to get more then a few gulps before the water began to bubble, before in mere moments it burst into steam, leaving Naruto half way into an empty basin.

"I'm not thirsty anymore," Naruto mumbled angrily as he pushed himself up, out of the basin.

"Should we go and start searching for them?" the small boy asked as he craned his neck backwards and glanced to the bloodstained head, which was rolling away.

"Hey, get back here!" Naruto said quickly, before rolling over and scampering after the runaway head.

He was able to reclaim it before it disappeared over the ledge.

Naruto smiled lightly at his friend before clutching it closely to his chest.

"Let's go find the people who are hiding," Naruto said happily before he turned around.

A frown etched itself upon Naruto's face as he stared up into the trees. Before him, dozens upon dozens of people were up in the trees, and they all had the same symbol upon their forehead protectors as the first four did, as his friend did. Slowly the frown upon his face turned into a smile, an innocent child-like smile. A smile that made a bizarre sight to see amongst the infernal mass of chakra that surrounded Naruto's body.

"You guys are silly, you're supposed to be hiding," Naruto chided the people in front of him lightly.

At Naruto's words each of the men and women in the tree's shifted lightly, some drew weapons, other's brought there hands together, and a few drew their hands back. The innocent smile upon Naruto's face widened and slowly began to creep upwards to his ears.

"We can play right now,"

* * *

"This is no time to play!" a hysterical woman shouted as she watched the old man in front of her recline upon his chair and blow along billow of smoke out. 

"I do not see why you are all in such an angry mood," the relaxed man said as h gazed over his spectacles at the crowd in front of him.

At the foremost a woman who looked far more animalistic then she did feminine stood, along with a rather large dog at her side, who adorned an eye patch, it looked as much like a pet as the woman beside it looked like a mother.

Slightly behind her to the side stood a very tall man, draped in black, his face seemed to be void of emotions, but every now and then, various parts of his face would give a slight twitch, and his eyes would linger upon the window behind the red and white dressed man.

Besides and behind them were numerous other's, most of them were rather average except for the few unique scars which adorned them, a few stood out, such as a bulbous looking man, a blonde man, and a spiky pony-tailed man, surprisingly they were standing close together on the side. On the other side of the room, closer then most of the gathered individual's, were a group of literally white eyed individual's. In all honesty, the only thing that varied to an extreme degree with them was their age; they seemed to range from early adulthood to deathbed worthy.

"Please, Hokage-sama," a voice said from near the window.

In an instant more then a dozen masked individuals appeared out of thin-air, each of them were dressed in the same outfit, with the only difference being their hair, gender, and the mask that adorned their face, the one who was speaking wore a chinchilla mask.

"You must have felt it also, you must still be feeling it, that despicable chakra, the entire village is in a state, some are calling for you to step down for allowing the child to live, and others have already prepared themselves, to either fight or leave. Something must be done to cease their behaviour, and the most direct way to cease all the behaviour is to remove the child along with the demon," the man continued to say as he stepped away from the group that surrounded him.

"I'm afraid that that course of action is absolutely unacceptable," The Hokage said as he sat up stair, all pretences of being a senile old man vanished in an instance, "I will not allow any undue harm to come onto Naruto, he is not responsible for the Kyuubi's actions anymore then I, or any of you are, and he will not be punished in it's stead,"

Protest immediately met his words from every single person in the room, while some were loud, some were barely audible. The loudest were the rotund man, and the feral looking woman, who seemed to be angry at the mere notion that the child would be allowed to live.

"Enough!" the Hokage said loudly, effectively silencing all protest in an instance.

"All of you go back to your duties, and if you're off duty then do as you would normally," the grey haired leader said haggardly, before reaching up to his head and gently massaging his temples, "Gundanchou, please lead your team and retrieve Uzumaki Naruto from the forests, unharmed. I trust you and your team will be able to put your personal feelings aside and complete this request without a lapse in judgement," the Hokage said softly as he watched the mass of ninja's in front of him leave, except for a single white-eyed man.

"Is there anything else I can do for you, Hiashi-san?" the Hokage asked calmly as he folded his hands against each other upon the desk in front of him.

"This incident cannot be ignored, nor would anyone allow it to be forgotten," Hiashi said stoically as he stared across the small distance towards the Hokage, "This is a perfect example of why you should have listened to the majority of the village, instead of trying to absolve your personal guilt with a dead man's wish!" the white-eyed man finished heatedly.

The Hokage shrugged nonchalantly before he reached down beside his desk and took a hold of something out of Hiashi's reach. After a few moments The Hokage brought up a non descript bottle and placed it upon his desk, before repeating the gesture and placing a single wooden cup upon the desk next to the bottle.

"What is done is done, and I will not take back my actions, nor will I ever regret them," The grey haired leader said as he picked up the dusty bottle and poured a moderate amount of liquid into the cup, before removing the bottle from sight.

"I do hope that you do not mind, but this is one of the few habits that I picked up from my students a long while ago," The Hokage said softly as he brought the cup up to his lips and sipped upon it.

Hiashi remained as emotionless as he could as he watched the third leader in the history of the village drink in front of him.

"You have two options that the Hyuuga and the rest of the allied clan's may agree upon; The first option is to publicly execute Uzumaki Naruto," The Hyuuga said calmly, ignoring the tired look upon the Hokage's face, "The second option is to declare Uzumaki's death to the public and remove him from society,"

The Sandaime Hokage stared blankly over the cup, which he held between his hands.

"Neither of those options are fair towards Naruto," The Hokage said flatly, before he placed the cup down on the desk in front of him.

"It is not fair to Konoha to be hosting a bomb, just waiting to explode," Hiashi retorted calmly as he stared down at the troubled man in front of him.

"I refuse to allow the execution of him, and I shall not imprison him or force him to live in solitude against his will," the Hokage said with a tone of finality.

"Your will is not enough this time, no matter how many law's you put into place, none of them will keep him safe from those in the village who would wish him harm, and Danzou will not let a shift in Anbu duties go about un-noticed, if you continue o use he villages elite to protect him then there will be a revolt," Hiashi said as he turned away from the Hokage and began to walk towards the door.

The Sandaime said nothing as he watched the head of the Hyuuga clan grasp the door handle and open the door of his office.

Hiashi paused for a moment before he turned back to face the Hokage.

"The only thing you will have the ability to do, is choose which way the child will go by, and how he will go through it," with that said, Hiashi walked out of the office and closed the door.

"You have no idea how right you are, Hiashi-san," the Hokage said warily as he turned his gaze to the crystal ball which laid upon the right side of his desk, which slowly began to fill in with colour, colour which soon morphed into a red and green scene, with a small boy with blonde hair standing in the middle, a small boy who was radiating more power then the entirety of Konoha could muster.

* * *

Deep in the forests surrounding Konoha a certain child was standing, surrounded by countless bodies, no matter what direction a person may have looked there was nothing but bodies, blood and the occasional tree which only had a few blood splatters upon it, a dozen or so meter's behind the blonde haired boy was a plateau, the plateau, which had previously been in a pristine state of cleanliness due to the water running down it's front, was stained crimson, the water which would have washed the blood away did little but add more to it. On the top of the plateau dismembered parts of people's body laid, the source of the blood. 

The boy was radiating a corona of malicious crimson energy, the air around the boy was thick with it, its pigment was so full and strong that it almost over-rode the yellow of the boy's hair, and almost clouded the animalistic traces that the boy's body had gained.

It was this scene that five Anbu arrived at in their search of the demon child. They for the most part ignored the grotesque display of gore and carnage. The leader's eyes were drawn to the forehead protector's of most of the intact bodies. The reality of the situation quickly hit the man as the toll of bodies rose in count as he surveyed the entire landscape.

"An invasion force?" an almost silent female voice asked from beside the leader, who simply nodded dumbly before leaning backwards as a few drops of blood dripped down to where he was from high above, causing him to look upwards.

There, high above the ground the carcase of one of the ninja was hanging upside down, most of it was torn apart, and half of its chest was missing. The blood was dripping from the gigantic wound and was passing through at least a dozen patches of leaves, as expected, most of the foliage under the body was stained red.

"If the clans or public receive news of this situation they will no doubt call for the child's blood," the leader said as his eyes landed upon the stone structure ten meter's away from the blonde haired boy, who was standing motionless.

"The fact that these seem to be an invasion force may work in favour of the child, this has to be at least four fifth's of stones military," a large Anbu sad from the left of the leader, who had begun to walk forward.

The leader of the group paused for a moment, before glancing back over his shoulder at the large man.

"Nothing which happened here could be for the child's benefit, he truly _is_ a Demon Child, if this is what he is capable of, he will be a true paragon of fear and power for the people of Konoha is this is made public," the leader said slowly, before turning his attention back to the demon-like child, still standing absolutely still in the middle of the massacre.

The leader of the group walked silently towards the child, he took special note of the fact that the closer he got the more oppressing the vile aura became. The ring of energy that surrounded the boy's body tightly became more vivid; the flame-like tongues of chakra rose upwards from the boy and licked at the air the Chinchilla masked Anbu stared down at the back of the boys head silently, contemplating the result of disturbing the demonic boy.

"Do you want to play?" the blonde haired child asked suddenly, and turned around towards the leader of the ground of Anbu.

Almost instantly, all of the Anbu had tensed, all except the leader, who remained staring down into the blood-soaked face of the child.

"No, the Hokage wishes to see you," The Anbu said calmly.

"Why?" Naruto asked curiously, as he tried to see past the thin slit's of the mask to the face of the man behind it.

"He did not inform me of the exact reason why," the leader said stoically.

Naruto blinked a single time, before speaking again.

"Why?" he repeated with the same innocence, he had previously.

"Because I did not need to know," the leader of the group said flatly, forgoing the act of remaining neutral in his disposition.

"Wh-" Naruto began to say, before his voice was overridden by that of the Anbu's, "Please come with us voluntarily, the Hokage wishes to see you," the Anbu repeated with the same calm disposition he had previously displayed.

"Ok," Naruto said happily, before he glanced around, searching for something, "Can you wait a second, I need to find my friend," he said quickly as he turned away, towards a largely more blood-soaked part of the clearing, where a myriad of body part's laid scattered all over the area.

Patience wasn't the Anbu's strong point, it seemed as, after a few minutes of watching Naruto search amongst the dismembered bodies, he had had quite enough.

"I'm sure whoever your friend was, they are dead now, and appeasing the dead is no reason to allow the living to go unattended, so please come here," the leader said as he held out his hand towards Naruto.

The blonde boy frowned lightly, but nodded to the Anbu's words, his friend was no where to be seen amongst those like it, they must have left once he had started to play with everyone else, probably upset that he was paying more attention to them, then it, he assumed.

"They aren't here," Naruto said quietly, before he turned around to face the group of Anbu, "Do you guys wana go now?"

"That would be preferable," the leader said calmly as he continued to hold his hand out towards Naruto.

Naruto walked forwards towards the Anbu and reached for his outstretched hand, Naruto's finger's curled around the masked man's and he grasped the hand tightly.

The Anbu brought his other hand up into an obscure hand signal.

"**Sokuseki Tenkin no Jutsu**," The Anbu leader said calmly, the energy surrounding Naruto seemed to fluctuate for a single moment, and the world around Naruto and the Anbu leader seemed to shudder for a moment, before it blurred out and transitioned into a different scene.

"Hello Naruto-kun," someone said from behind Naruto, causing the blonde haired boy to let go of the Anbu's hand and turn around to face the person who welcomed him.

"Old man?" Naruto asked excitedly as he turned around, the moment his eyes landed upon that of the Hokages a smile appeared upon his lips, but it was quickly squelched as he took in the look upon the grey-haired man.

"You have had quite a night, haven't you?" the Hokage said softly with a small amount of amusement trickling through his voice as he surveyed the small boy in front of him, the small boy whose boy was literally teeming the ominous energy of the Kyuubi.

Naruto nodded enthusiastically.

"I played with lot's of people in the forest, it was fun, we played hide and seek, tag, ninja and lot's of stuff!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly.

"Would you like me to show you a secret place, Naruto? The Hokage asked with a small smile.

Naruto's eyes widened slightly and he leaned forwards, cupping his hand beside his mouth.

"A secret place?" Naruto whispered curiously.

The Sandaime nodded lightly.

"Only a few people have ever been there, in the entire history of the village," the Sandaime stage whispered to Naruto, before he slowly stood up and walked around the desk and held out his hand to Naruto, who quickly clasped it and began to pull the elderly man towards the door.

As Naruto tugged against the Hokage's arm and forced him to move along with him, the Hokage was reflecting upon the aura, which was surrounding Naruto's body, and pressing against his own innate chakra. The small boy continued to tug against the Sandaime's hand until they were a far distance from the Hokage tower, until they were in the middle of the streets.

Mentally the Sandaime thanked his lucky stars that the invasion force had allowed him to call martial law in the village, all the windows to all the buildings were shut tightly, and the only people who were out and moving around were the ninja of the village, and they were almost too busy securing the village to notice the pair, almost that is. Every shinobi that passed by the odd pair sent a hateful glare towards Naruto, and a nod to the admirable Hokage.

"Where do we go now?" Naruto asked suddenly as he stopped leading the Hokage.

The Hokage smiled lightly and pointed to the right, where a broken down hovel stood, completely by itself, it looked like it was ready to fall over and turn into dust. Naruto started at it incredulously, before in a split second, the shack-like dwelling disappeared, and in it's place a non-descript building appeared, just outside of it there were at least four different men standing in a line, each of them motionless, staring out into different directions.

Naruto started in wonder at the building, before he glanced up to the Hokage, who had placed his hand into a hand seal in front of his face.

"We'd better hurry, before it disappears again," the Hokage said good-naturedly, before he gently pushed Naruto forwards from the small of his back.

Naruto grinned and began to run forward towards the entrance, he didn't notice that all the guards almost instantly tensed up the moment that Naruto had started towards them, the one on the far right even went as far as to move his hand from a neutral position to place it upon his weapons pouch, Behind Naruto the Hokage made a gesture inciting them to not act against Naruto, and they didn't, Naruto stopped just before the front door and stared in wonder at the guards, who remained motionless under the glowing boy's perception.

"In we go," the Hokage said with a smile as he tapped Naruto on the back again, pushing him ever so closer towards the door.

Naruto pushed forwards and opened the door; inside he was greeted with an empty room, with a single staircase, which lead down. Naruto walked forwards down the stairs, and began to move quickly with glee. It seemed like hours and hours that Naruto had been going down stairs, every so often the stair's would level out and he would walk forwards, before the walk turned a few times and it went off in another direction, before yet another set of stairs lead downwards. After an eternity of near silence, Naruto could not take it anymore.

"Are we there yet?" Naruto demanded to know as he stopped walking.

Behind him, the white and red clothed Hokage let out a good-natured laugh.

"The journey is the goal, you should remember that, and I would think that you should savour this journey," the Hokage said with a tone of melancholy, "We're almost there, you don't have long to go now,"

Naruto nodded to himself and began walking forwards again; wondering what would be at the end of the walking, at the secret place. Naruto briefly wondered if his friend would be there waiting for him.

Finally, after all that walking, Naruto finally came to the end of the stairs, in front of him a large corridor filled with doors, each door seemed to be solid hardwood, and was braced by a dull greyish metal. At the very end of the corridor, there was an open door.

As hard as Naruto tried, he could not see past the doorway, the entire room was dark, he noticed. Ever so slowly, Naruto walked forwards, until he was at the nexus between the corridor and the room beyond it, hesitantly, Naruto walked through the doorway, into the room, and then suddenly, the room blossomed into light and each corner of the room was illuminated.

Naruto spun around just in time to look into the Hokage's eyes, before the old man spoke.

"**_Kuukanjiku Nyuusho no Jutsu_**,"

* * *

** Tell me what you think, if you would be as kind to. **


End file.
